MIPS and megabytes
Entities rated by the
computational power and memory of the smallest universal computer
needed to mimic their behavior. Note that the scale is logarithmic
on both axes: each vertical division represents a thousandfold
increase in processing power, and each horizontal division a
thousandfold increase in memory size. Universal computers, marked by
an *, can imitate other entities at their
location in the diagram, but the more specialized entities cannot. A
100-million-MIPS computer may be programmed not only to think like a
human, but also to imitate other similarly sized computers. But
humans cannot imitate 100-million-MIPS computers--our
general-purpose calculation ability is under a millionth of a MIPS.
Deep Blue's special-purpose chips process chess moves like a
3-million-MIPS computer, but its general-purpose power is only a
thousand MIPS. Most of the noncomputer entities in the diagram
can't function in a general-purpose way at all. Universality is
an almost magical property, but it has costs. A universal machine
may use ten or more times the resources of one specialized for a
task. But if the task should change, as it usually does in research,
the universal machine can be reprogrammed, while the specialized
machine must be replaced.